Seismic Passive/Active Thrust on Retaining Wall-Point of Application

An analysis of seismic passive/active thrust on a retaining wall is proposed, in which Kotter’s equation is used to obtain the distribution of soil reaction on the failure plane. The geometrical conditions in the analysis are similar to those of Mononobe-Okabe’s analysis. The distinguishing feature of the proposed analysis lies in its ability to compute the point of application of the passive/active thrust, for which moment equilibrium condition is effectively utilized. The point of application of the passive/active thrust depends upon a combination of several parameters such as angles of wall friction, soil internal friction, backfill slope, wall back and seismic coefficients of vertical and horizontal acceleration. The computed values of point of passive and active pressure coefficients compare closely with available results and the point of application of the active thrust also compares closely with available experimental results.